The Heart to Heart
by Lynne Porcelain
Summary: When Nicole picks Gumball up from school, he ends up finding out things about his mother that he never would have guessed. She learns something personal about him, too. The heavy conversation that unfolds in the car is therapeutic for the both of them.


**A/N: Hi! Lynne here. This time I thought I'd try and write a story that's more dialogue-heavy. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Amazing World of Gumball.**

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"And you're really not mad at me?"

Nicole shook her head. "No. Why would I be? No matter who you like, you'll always be my Gummypuss."

Gumball wrung his hands together. He was sitting in the passenger seat of the family's green sedan, which was parked on the street outside his house. He couldn't face his mother who was sitting in the driver's seat. She moved her two-paw over to ruffle Gumball's hair, and he squirmed in protest. The low sun reflected light off the hood and created a brilliant orange illusion on the windshield.

"Masami said I could get fired 'cause of it."

"You're twelve. It's going to be a long time before you need to think about getting a job," Nicole said.

"That's a non-answer."

"… There are some unaccepting people in the world. But you can get whatever job you want and be whoever you want to be, and people will support you."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay…" The younger cat toyed with the hem of his beige sweater. "Tobias said some words today that I'd never heard of."

"Was this after you came out to him?" His mother said.

Gumball nodded.

"And did they sound like good words, or bad words?" Nicole was gripping the wheel tighter now.

"I don't know, 'cause I'd never heard them before. I can spell them out if you want."

Nicole gestured for him to continue.

"Banana Joe laughed at this one. F-A-"

She clapped a hand around his mouth. "Okay, that's enough."

Gumball struggled under her paw, and when she let go, he said, "Hey! What'd you do that for?"

"You were about to say a bad word. There's no soap in the car. You don't want to use window solution, do you?"

"But I didn't even _know _it was a bad word," Gumball said.

"Well, now you know."

A heavy silence hung in the air.

"… Tobias probably gets that from his father. From now on, if you hear anyone say that word to you again, you tell me right away, okay?" In the space of seconds, she had gone from looking out the window to locking him in a stare.

"Okay. I don't really know why it's such a big deal, though. I mean, it's just a word," Gumball said.

"A _bad _word. And saying bad words is never okay."

"Sometimes I hear you say bad words. Is that not okay too?"

Nicole sighed. "There are different types of bad words, Gumball. The ones I use are okay for grown-ups to say if they are angry or upset, but what Tobias said isn't okay for anyone to say."

"Why?" Her son said.

"Because it targets a specific group of people. You will never hear me or your father, or hopefully other adults you meet, say that word," said Nicole.

Gumball furrowed his brow. "Then why does Tobias say it?"

Nicole bared her teeth at some imaginary figure on the road. "Harold is not like me or your father."

"Oh. Well, thanks for not being mad at me, Mom," Gumball undid his seatbelt and reached for the car door handle.

"Put your seatbelt back on."

"Huh? But we're already at home!"

"I'm taking you back to school," Nicole said, gaze still transfixed on the road.

"What the what? We just got back from there!"

His mother swallowed. "If you come with me, I'll swing by Joyful Burger on the way home."

"_And _the arcade?" Gumball smirked.

"No."

The twelve-year-old cat assumed the pose of The Thinker. "Fine. I'll go with you. Why, though?"

"You spend too much time playing games," Nicole said.

"No, I mean, why are we going back to school?"

His mother adjusted her seatbelt. "We're going to have a talk with your principal. It looks like things haven't changed since I was there, and I'm not letting you get treated the way I was just for being open about who you are. You or any of the other kids."

Gumball straightened up in shock. "The way _you _were?"

"I'm not starting the car until you put your seatbelt back on."

"Sorry," Gumball said.

The belt locked in place with a click, and Nicole turned the key in the ignition. The car sputtered to life. The radio blared a rock tune, but Nicole turned it off. She took the car out of neutral, but paused before her footpaw could hit the accelerator. A lone plane made a trail across the cloudless sky. Nicole watched it until it disappeared behind the trees.

"Uh, Mom? Are we gonna go, or…?"

"I'm going to tell you a story," Nicole said.

The older blue cat pulled out of the parking space and set off down the suburban street.

"I'm getting kind of old for stories, Mom," Gumball yawned.

"This isn't a fairytale. It's a story about me, when I was your age."

The younger cat's ears pricked up. His mother rarely, if ever, talked about what things were like before she got married. He could count the amount of times he had met his maternal grandparents on one hand. Gumball hadn't even been told that his parents went to Elmore Junior High together, he had found that out during one of Ms. Simian's rants. He had always wanted to know more about his Mom's life, especially since he knew so much about his Dad's, and now he was finally going to learn something. He sat quiet and listened.

"Before I start, I'm going to remind you that your father and I have been together for over twenty years, and we love each other very much," Nicole said.

"Okay…?"

"Your father wasn't my first love."

Gumball's jaw dropped. "But… I thought you'd been together forever! That's what Dad says."

"We agreed not to talk about my first relationship around you."

"Why?" Gumball said.

Nicole exhaled through her nose. "We didn't want to confuse you, or make you think I didn't love your father. I _do_ love him. I love him a lot. And when you started dating Penny, I didn't want you thinking that soulmates didn't exist."

"It's okay. If a relationship doesn't last, it means you haven't found your soulmate yet. Penny told me that. You've loved Dad for a long time, so that means Dad is your soulmate. Who did you love before Dad?"

His mother bit her lip. "Her name was Yuki. We went to school together."

Gumball mouthed that name a few times. Then he gasped. "Masami's Mom?!"

"Yes."

"Woah… So I could have had two Moms?"

"… Yes."

Curiosity got the better of him. "So why did you break up?"

"When I went there, Elmore Junior High was more or less exactly the same as it is now. It had the same cliques and hangout spots. Different teachers, except Ms. Simian. The principal was not a very nice man. I'll come back to him later. Yuki and I were happy together. We sat together in class, we hung out after school, and we went on dates, just like you do with Penny. When we trained together in Japan, I met her extended family. Her aunts and uncles and her cousins and her grandparents. They accepted me very quickly. I have pictures of me with her family at home. I can show you them when we get back. Would you like to see them?" Nicole took her eyes off the road to make brief eye contact with her son.

Gumball's mind was still processing it all. "Yeah. Will Dad mind, though?"

"No. We knew I'd have to tell you about this eventually."

"Are you gonna tell Darwin and Anais?"

"I'll show them the pictures too," Nicole said.

"Okay."

The older cat let the car roll to a stop at a set of red lights. "We broke up after a few months. She dumped me because of what happened when Steve came out."

"You mean Mr. Small?" Gumball said.

"Yes. One person, Tobias' Dad, did not like it. At all. He started bullying Steve, calling him the same word Tobias called you today. Yuki and I had to keep our relationship secret because we were worried that that would happen to us. She was popular and she thought it would ruin her reputation, and I was already getting bullied for other things. And Grandma Mary and Grandpa Daniel wouldn't like me dating a girl."

That was the first time Gumball had heard her speak her parents' names in months.

"Well, Yuki saw what happened to Steve and decided it wasn't worth the risk, so she dumped me. We stopped sitting together, we stopped hanging out together, we stopped training together. We weren't even friends anymore," said Nicole.

"Ouch…"

"Then, one day, we had a big fight. Yuki told me she never should have dated me in front of the whole school. The other kids started gossiping about it. People stopped teasing Yuki pretty quickly because she was popular, but now people were bullying me for being bisexual on top of everything else they didn't like about me. Especially by Harold. The only kids who didn't whisper when I walked by them in the hallways were your father and Steve. Your father was Steve's best friend, so he was very accepting. I knew I could trust him. So we started dating, and we've been together ever since," Nicole smiled, peeling away once the light turned green.

She soon frowned again. "When you told me what Tobias said, I remembered how Harold used to treat me. My principal acted like him too, so I couldn't report it. I'm hoping your principal is more open-minded. I'm not letting a Wilson hurt my baby."

"Thanks, Mom," Gumball said. "I wasn't really expecting any of that… Apart from Mr. Small being gay. That was obvious."

Nicole chuckled. "Well, I wasn't expecting to have to have this talk with you today."

"What are you gonna say to Principal Brown?"

"Exactly what I just told you."

The imposing outline of the school was fast approaching, and a feeling of dread settled in Gumball's mind. They were following the bus route, and his brain was hard-wired to associate going down this road with school mornings. Even on weekends, or in this case, a weekday evening. He wondered if it would have this effect on him for the rest of his life. Would he still like boys and girls for the rest of his life?

Gumball frowned. "What if I'm wrong?"

"What do you mean, sweetie?"

"What if I just like girls?"

Nicole drove slower past the trees that lined the sidewalk and parked right next to the big steps leading up to the school. She put the car in neutral and shut off the engine. Only then did she answer her son.

"Gumball, what did I tell you earlier? Boys, girls, people who aren't either, it doesn't matter. You'll figure it out eventually, and I will always support you. So will your father, and your brother, and your sister. That's what families are for."

Gumball took off his seatbelt and pulled his mother into a tight hug. His mother squeezed him just as hard. A sudden knock on the driver's side window made them both jump.

A furry slug wearing spectacles was peering inside the car. "Can I help you?"

Nicole looked at her son, who was smiling at her, then back at the figure outside. "Principal Brown, we need to talk."

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**A/N: This was fun for me to write. Did you like it, too? Let me know what you think. Leave a review, or a fave or a follow if you want. Until next time... - Lynne**


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